NGO says Brazil cut CO2 emissions, cites slowing deforestation

Brazil cut carbon emissions slightly last year, thanks mainly to a drop in deforestation which offset rises from the farming, energy and industrial sectors, said a report released Thursday.

Last year the South American behemoth and world's seventh largest economy generated 1.56 billion tons of greenhouse gases, which was 0.9 percent less than in 2013, said the NGO Climate Observatory.

Still, that was the second highest level of the past six years.

Changes in the use of land, including the felling and burning of forests, came with increased activity in other polluting sectors, such as energy. Trees are good for fighting climate change because they absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen.

In those other sectors emissions rose six percent year on year even in Brazil's moribund economy, the report said.

Greenhouse gases from the energy sector come from higher consumption of gasoline and diesel fuel in transport and greater electricity generation.

Emissions from electricity generation alone rose 23 percent in 2014. And in the past three years they have almost tripled, the report said.

Looking ahead to the big global climate conference starting late this month in Paris, Brazil has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 37 percent by 2025, using 2005 as the baseline, and by 43 percent by 2030.

Some environmentalists have called those goals achievable but not very ambitious.

© 2015 AFP